2020 Guggenheim Fellow Pia Borg | Image courtesy of the artist
On Wednesday (April 8), the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation announced the awarding of the prestigious 2020 Guggenheim Fellowships to 175 scholars, artists, and writers. Several CalArts alums and faculty were named among this year’s fellows:
- Rheim Alkadhi (BFA Art 94)
- J Stoner Blackwell (Art MFA 99)
- Pia Borg (School of Film/Video faculty)
- Cammie Staros (Art MFA 11)
- Lloyd Suh (2019 Herb Alpert Award recipient in Theater)
- Catherine Sullivan (BFA Acting 92) and
- Valerie Tevere (Art MFA 97).
Edward Hirsch, president of the Foundation, said:
It’s exceptionally encouraging to be able to share such positive news at this terribly challenging time. A Guggenheim Fellowship has always offered practical assistance, helping Fellows do their work, but for many of the new Fellows, it may be a lifeline at a time of hardship, a survival tool as well as a creative one. As we grapple with the difficulties of the moment, it is also important to look to the future. The artists, writers, scholars, and scientific researchers supported by the Fellowship will help us understand and learn from what we are enduring individually and collectively, and it is an honor for the Foundation to help them do their essential work.
Awardees were selected on the “basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.”
The Guggenheim Foundation uses a network of several hundred advisers, all of whom are former Guggenheim fellows, to review, critique, and rank all the applications in their respective fields. Their recommendations are then forwarded to a selection committee that determines the number of awards issued in each area.
Since its establishment in 1925, the Foundation has granted more than $375 million in Fellowships to more than 18,000 artists, writers, performers, musicians, and scholars.
See the full list of 2020 fellowship recipients here.